Conservative Insurgent Thursday - Episode #3

Conservative Insurgent Thursdays continues with Lauren Southern, whom Wikipedia refers to as a "far right" activist (which apparently encompasses anyone who isn't far left). They also claim she is associated with the alt-right, a claim which is patently ridiculous.

Lauren is the first woman featured on this young series, but she's first for good reason. Lauren is not afraid to stand up for classical liberalism/conservatism/libertarianism no matter the situation. She's fearless. She's feisty. She's intelligent. She's internet savvy. And she's not what the left claim she is. She's fighting an uphill battle but it never appears that she's bitter or negative because of it. All of that make her a logical choice as the next conservative insurgent profile.

Who is Lauren Southern?Born in Canada in 1995, to a father of Danish descent, her birth name was actually Lauren Simonsen. She studied political science at the University of the Fraser Valley but decided not finish her degree. In 2015, at the age of 20, she ran for parliament in British Columbia, Canada as a Libertarian candidate. She did not win. When in Canada, and only in Canada, Lauren identifies as a man - more on that later.

Background:At the age of 22, Lauren has a surprising list of accomplishments in support of the conservative/libertarian cause. She has been banned by Patreon and Facebook (mistakenly, and then re-instated in the case of the latter). She has worked for Rebel Media (a Canadian conservative Youtube channel run by Ezra Levant that has helped launch other conservative insurgents into the limelight). In 2017 she departed to start working independently.

Not a great deal of personal information about Lauren is available. It's not surprising given her youth, but it's also refreshing that she does not put herself out there completely, in contrast to so many of her generation.

Notable achievements:In addition to working at Rebel Media, and bravely going out on her own, Lauren wrote and self-published in 2016 "Barbarians: How Baby Boomers, Immigrants, and Islam Screwed My Generation".

Did I mention she is fearless? In 2017, Southern was part of an attempt organized by Génération identitare to block the passage of an NGO ship that was leaving Sicily to start a "search-and-rescue" mission for ship-wrecked migrants off the shores of Northern Africa. The reason: the group claimed that the goal was to stop an empty boat from going to Libya and filling up with illegal migrants. The result: Southern was briefly detained by the Italian Coast Guard.

Most recently Southern has traveled to South Africa to do a series of videos on white farmers being harassed, assaulted and even killed by black citizens.

Why we need her:
Lauren is simply fearless. She is not afraid to walk into the belly of the liberal beast during protests to challenge people's fallacious beliefs, armed with quick-witted facts. In doing so she has been verbally maligned and even assaulted. She never backed down. In 2015 her cameraman was shoved and later in 2016, in Vancouver a protester poured urine on her head as she was engaging another protester. Her bravado, poise under fire and knowledge far exceed her years, indicating she will have a lengthy future in conservative activism. It is highly probable that her greatest accomplishments still lie ahead.

Her youth is not at all a detriment but rather an asset - talking to millennials is more likely to have an impact if the facts and debate are coming from another millennial and not some 'old person'. It also matters that despite having left her political science course, Southern approaches her discussions and journalism well-armed with knowledge pertinent to the topic.